Apparatus for injection moulding of plastic material



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APPARATUS FOR INJECTION MOULDING OF PLASTIC MATERIAL Filed Feb. 1. 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 If I v I I F I l Il 10a` 1'/q 10ia -f 15 INVENTOR Mauj'ce llocarre ATTORNEY 'Feb- 10, 1959 M. LABARRE 2,8721-,1'705 APPARATUS FOR INJECTION MOULDING OF PLASTIC MATERIAL Fil'ed F/eb. 1. 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVEN ToR Maw-ce Laban-re BY, www* ATTORNEY Vthe mould. Vbegins to flow slowly after a certain compression of the `whole of the powdered material has `been reached, and

United States Patent O APPARATUS 'FOR INJECTON MOULDING I0F PLASTIC MATERIAL Maurice Labarre, Paris, France, assignorto `Specialties Alimentaires Bourguignonnes (S. A. Br), Dijon, France, a societe anonyme of France Application February 1, 1954, Serial Nm-407,420 `Claims priority, application France November 1'14, 1953 7 Claims. (Cl. 18--30) A known method of injection of plastic-materialfinto a mould consists in forcing the plastic=material-inthemol ten `state through an orifice formed Vin thermould, bythe pressure of a piston on a mass of powdered `or'granular raw material contained in acylinder providedwith a'he'ating arrangement which raises the-temperature of the raw material from the ambient temperature, atthe-point of tains at the injection orifice.

This method does not permit of an exact quantity' measurement of the material injected, that is to say it is impossible to inject at a constant pressure and speed the strict quantity of material corresponding to'the volume .of In practice, the molten plastic material only thereafter it flows at an increasing speed and increasing pressure. ,i

It will readily be seen that,'with this method, the material 'which passes into the cold mould, that is to sayat the ambient temperature, and which-has a low initial speed, lwill tend to set to a certain extent so that in order to continuethe injection process, it is necessary to apply 'considerable pressure to the piston so as to overcome the resistance due to this partial setting and to obtain satisfactory moulding.

These diiculties ybecome more'and more' pronounced as the thickness of the piecesV to be moulded becomes smaller, since in this case their cooling inside the mould is almost instantaneous. f

The method which formsV the object ofthe-'presentinvention avoids these drawbacks andbrings remarkable advantages to'injection-moulding.

In'its main principles, this method is essentially characterized by the fact that the raw material just reaching the molten state in an injection chamber is vinjected into the mould by the action of a piston which is submerged in the said molten material, so that the operative face of this piston plunges entirely into a mass which is not granular or powdered, but which possesses such a degree of fluidity that the injection may be carried out very rapidly.

In accordance with a further feature of the invention, means are `provided for interrupting, during lthe period of injection, the communication between the melting charnber land the cylinder in which the injection piston moves, the assembly piston-cylinder constituting apump supplied with molten plastic material from the said chamber, which forms a melting pit on the top of the `injection chamber.

Finally, 'a further feature of the invention consists in that the raw material, in granular .or powdered form,

Vwall of the pit. lin `order that the raw material 'contained in the bottom rusual. kinds of chamber. Vagain (Fig. 3), the piston 3 remains stationary until the 2,872,705 Ratented Feb. 1o, 1959 placed vin a hopper lor the like mounted on the said melting pit, is introduced and forced into this latter yby the action of a piston which is quite independent of the injection piston.

There is described below, by way of example and -not in `any sense'by way of limitation, an arrangement 'for carrying into effect the method according to the invention.

lIn this example, the supply of the body of the pump Vwith `molten material is effected through --the injection piston itself. This arrangement is Vshowndi'agrammatically in longitudinal lcross-section in the Figures l, Zand 3, at three different stages of its operation.

'Withreference to Fig. l:

The arrangement comprises an injection chamber .1 in the base of which is'pierced van injection orice 42. In the chamber 1 moves an injection piston 3, operatedzby a rod 4. One or a number of electrical resistances 5 are .provided for heating the chamber 1 as well as a pit 6 which is mounted above it and which is supplied with plastic material from a hopper l7 surrounding the upper opening of the pit. The Vmaterial containedin the hopper 7 is introduced into the pit 6 by a piston 8 which is kcompletely independent of theipiston 3. The soleifunction of this piston'S is to push the .plasticmaterial towards the bottom of the pit 6 and to prevent theformationof archesof material inthe yzone at which the latter, sliding down into the pit 6, reaches a vcertain -temperature and adheres, by reason of its semi-moltenstate, to thefheated The resistances 5 .are suitably controlled of the pit'6 shall -be in a molten condition.

lThe cylinder9 of the chamberI, in which theinjection piston 3 moves, may communicate with the pit 6 by means of orifices 10a and a channel 10b, yformed in an end-cap 111 which terminates the rod 4. On this end-cap, thepis- `ton-3 has a certain liberty of axial displacement between the head '12 of the end-cap and the extremity of the v rod 4.

` .Atthe base of the cylinder '9, the injection oriceZ may be closed by means of a shut-off rod 13 which'moves ton plunges only in this molten material.

The operation of the arrangement is as follows: lIn Fig. l, the pistonf3 is at its uppermost position, ready to travel downwards to carry out the injection. During its Vdownward travel, the extremity of the rod 4 comes iup against the upper face of the piston 3 and thus shuts oft' the orifices 10a- As lthe rod 4 continues downwards,

the plastic material contained in the .cylinder .9 is cornpressed and is forced out through the channel 14, the

shut-off rod 13 thus moving clear of the orice 2. The plastic material is'then injected through that orice in ac- `cordance with the speed and the pressure impressed on the rod 4 and, in consequence, on the piston 3.

At the end of the injection (Fig. 2), a measured quantity of material has been injected into the mould (not shown), dependent on the travel given to the rod 4. If, at this `moment, the mould is taken away from the orifice 2, there will be formed, at the extremity of this latter, a

drop e which is more or less large, as is the case with the When the rod 4 begins torise head 12 of the end-'cap 11 abuts against it,'that is to say after a length of travel c. The piston 3 then rises, thereby creating a reduction of pressure in the cylinder 9 which .results at 4thesame timein theV sucldng-inof` vthe drop eau-d also a suction ofthe shut-olf rod .13 through f 3 the channel 14 (Fig. 3), which is thus automatically closed without having any need for a restoring spring.

As the upward travel of the piston 3 continues (Fig. 3), the reduction of pressure in the cylinder 9 draws in a fresh charge of molten plastic material to the pit 6 through the orifices a, 10b.

It is to be noted that the suction is more effective on the shutter rod 13 and the drop e than on the molten material contained in the lower portion of the pit 6, by virtue of a suitable choice of relationship between the surfaces of the orifices 10a and the lower face of the piston 3, this latter being much greater than that corresponding to the said orifices.

At the end of its upward travel, the cylinder 9, supplied through the orifices 10a and the channel 10b is again filled up and the operation of injection may be started again.

The piston 8, which is independent of the injection piston 3 and of the rod 4 has only the function of supplying the pit 6 with raw material and to cause the plastic material contained in the hopper 7 to progress downwards towards the base of the pit 6; the relatively slight pressure which it applies to the said material is clearly independent of the pressure of the injection piston 3; its movement is also independent of that of the latter and it is, for example, possible to carry out several injections whilst the piston 8 has only carried out one single to and fro movement.

In the operation of the whole arrangement, the control of the shutter rod 13 is specially to be emphasized. In working, the opening of this shutter is effected solely by the pressure of the piston 3 on the material contained in the cylinder 9. An abutment 15 is provided to prevent the shutter from sliding out of its housing. As will be evident from the foregoing any resistance to movement of the valve rod 13, will delay the outward movement of rod 13 causing an increase in the pressure in cylinder 9 before the material is released from orifice 2 and thus will result in faster injection of the material into a mould. In the case where one will wish to increase the rapidity of injection it will be possible to hold the rod 13 mechanically locked for a brief instant in the position shown in 4 this rapidity prevents any tendency of the material to thicken when it enters the cold mould and makes possible the production of automatic machines with a number of separate moulds which can be very rapidly supplied from the same injection chamber;

(3) It is possible to obtain very thin small articles which may be of the order of 2/10 of a millimeter in thickness and less than one gramme in weight;

(4) An injection pressure which is very much lower than that employed by older processes;

(5) The closing-up of the moulds is greatly facilitated by the low pressures required and by the exact quantity of material injected, whilst with the usual kinds of injection chamber, the quantity of material in excess trends to open the filled moulds at the moment when the injection pressure reaches its maximum;

(6) The drops of material at the nozzle of the injection chamber are eliminated;

(7) The temperatures employed are considerably lower than those usually required, with the result that the risk of burning of the material is eliminated; in addition, it has vantages given above, it is possible to produce econom- Figure 1 so that piston 3 will produce a higher compression pressure in cylinder 9.

In the case in which the raw material is very pasty and does not flow sufciently well through the orifices 10a by suction, the upward course of the piston may be regulated in such manner that its lower face rises above the base f of the pit 6, thus increasing the supply of material, without modifying the other movements referred to above.

If necessary, there may be submerged in the plastic material, between the rod 4 and the internal wall of the pit 6 (Fig. 2) a device 16, which is known as a torpedo,

and which consists of a metallic mass having good heat conducting properties and which is provided with narrow passages for the plastic material, whereby the latter is brought up to the melting temperature in a uniform manner.

From the preceding description, it will readily be understood that the method and the arrangement in accordance with the invention -possess the following advantages with respect to those previously known:

(l) A very exact quantity of material injected: the quantity of material injected corresponds, in fact, to the capacity of the mould and is equal in volume to that produced by the displacement of the piston 3, which permits of the use of mechanical pressure on this piston without it being necessary to provide any spring or hydraulic arrangement; the travel of injection is determined by the quantity of material to be injected and its length is regulated in consequence;

(2) A very high speed `of injection into the mould by reason of the speed and the constant pressure at the point of discharge of the material from the injection chamber;

ically with moulds having thin walls.

The articles obtained by the application of the method in accordance with the invention have an improved appearance; their iiexibility is also improved when flexible plastic material of the polyethylene and polyamide types are used and the articles are less fragile.

What I claim is: a

1. In an injection molding apparatus having an injection chamber adapted to contain liquid material, an output valve leading from said chamber and comprising a piston fitted in a cylinder bore transverse to an exit passageway connected between the inpection chamber and an output orifice, and means forming a liquid passageway to said cylinder bore and so arranged that increased iiuid pressure in the injection chamber will displace the piston outwardly uncovering said exit passageway and permit the discharge of material from said injection chamber, and a decrease in pressure in said chamber will cause said piston to Close said exit passageway and will vsuck back into said output orifice any drop of liquid hanging therefrom. i

2. In an injection molding apparatus having an injec- Vtion chamber adapted to contain liquid material, an outlet orifice leading from said chamber, an outlet valve said outlet valve is perpendicular to the path of material flowing from said injection chamber.

4. The combination of elements as claimed in claim 2 in which said passage leading from said chamber is an L-shaped passage.

5. An apparatus Of the type described comprising a reservoir of material to be injection moulded, an injection chamber, an -output valve in said injection chamber actuated open by increased pressure within said chamber and actuated closed by decreased pressure within said charnber, a piston extending into said injection chamber, an input valve opening in the side of said piston connecting the reservoir and injection chamber, a shoulder portion on said piston shortly above said valve opening, a coaxial sleeve surrounding said piston and in tight-fitting but slidable relation with said piston and the walls of the injection chamber, said lsleeve being slidable on the injection strokev ,ofl said piston to a position tightly abutting the shoulder ony said piston and covering the input valve opening, whereby on the injection stroke of said piston said input valve is covered by the coaxial sleeve and a tight seal achieved between said sleeve, said shoulder and the portion of the piston between said shoulder and the input valve opening, and whereby on a reverse stroke of said piston a negative pressure is created in said injection chamber by said sleeve sliding relative to said piston before uncovering said input valve opening and any drop of liquid will be sucked into said chamber from said output valve before the latter closes.

6. An apparatus of the type described and as defined in claim 5 wherein the output valve in the injection chamber is a transverse sliding piston.

7. High speed injection moulding apparatus comprising a reservoir of material to be injection moulded, an injection chamber, an output valve in said injection chamber actuated open by increased pressure within said chamber and actuated closed by `decreased pressure within said chamber, a piston movable at high speed into said injection chamber to force under high pressure a precisely measured amount of said material from said chamber out through said output valve, an input valve having a passageway connecting said reservoir Vand said chamber and having an opening parallel with said piston, a sleeve axially movable with said piston and in tight-litting but slidable relation therewith, said sleeve having an axial References Cited in the tile of this patent UNTTED STATES PATENTS 777,870 Vellino Dec. 20, 1904 856,026 Brown et al. June 4, 1907 2,016,503 Kenworthy Oct. 8, 1935 2,422,990 Spanier June 24, 1947 2,491,343 Valyi Dec. 13, 1949 2,585,112 Gravesen Feb. 12, 1952 2,621,365 Deschamps Dec. 16, 1952 2,688,986 Miles Feb. 16, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,047,420 AFrance July 22, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT oEEICE CERTIHCATE 0F CORBECHON Patent No. 2,872,705 February 10y 1959 Maurice Labarrer It is hereby certified that error appears in the -printed specification of the above vnumbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

GQ11111111 A, line 14, for trer1d.s" read w tends line 36, for

' "inspection" read e injection sur) mest:

ARL H AXLINE `vttesting Ofcer ROBERT C. WATSGN Commissioner of Patents 

